Refrigerating apparatus



Sept. 13, 1938.

H. B. HULL 2,130,089

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed April 30, 1935 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 13, 1938 UNITED STATES REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Harry B. Hull, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Application April 30, 1935, Serial No. 19,007

7 Claim.

This invention relates to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to bed cooling means.

It has recently been proposed to provide an individual means for cooling at bed. In such a means air is taken from the room, cooled and supplied to the bed. However, in the summer months when cooling is required the room ordinarily becomes heated during the day and when night comes it retains a certain amount of this 10 heat. The outdoor temperature, however, begins to fall ordinarily as soon as the sun goes down and at bed time it is very often considerably cooler than the air in the room.

It is an object of my invention to take advantags of this condition to reduce the refrigerating requirements of a bed cooling means and to pro-,

vide a means for drawing in air from the outside and regulating its temperature and supplying it to the bed enclosure for maintaining the bed r at a comfortable temperature.

.30 In the drawing:

The figure is a diagrammatic illustration of a bed cooling means including a bed to be cooled and a refrigerating system and control means embodying my invention.

5 Briefly in my disclosure I have provided a refrigerating system having the evaporating and liquefying means located within separate ducts which receive air from the outside through a window duct and which have the air mixed in 40 proper proportions according to a thermostatic control so as to supply air to an enclosed bed at a proper temperature to maintain the atmosphere within the bed enclosure in a comfortable condition.

5 Referring to the drawing there is shown a bed 20 provided with a mattress 22, a pillow 24 and an enclosure 26 which may have an open top or which may be substantially completely enclosed. This bed enclosure 26 is supplied with fresh air 50 at the proper temperature through a duct means 28 which conducts air from an air tempering means generally designated by the reference character 30. In order to take advantage of the cooler external air normally existing during 55 sleeping hours, I provide a window duct 32 which extends to the outside through the window opening 34 provided with a window 38 one section of which is raised and rests upon the top of the window duct in order to permit the projection of the duct means to the outside. The duct means 5 32 is connected to an enclosure 38 which contains the refrigerant liquefying apparatus 40 and a second enclosure 42 which contains a refrigerant evaporating means 44.

The refrigerant liquefying means includes a 10 compressor 46 driven by an electric motor 52 for compressing the refrigerant and for forwarding the compressed refrigerant to a condenser 48 where the compressed refrigerant is liquefied and collected in a receiver 50. From the receiver 50, 15 the liquid refrigerant is forwarded through a supply conduit 54 under the control of an automatic thermostatic expansion valve 56 provided with a thermostatic bulb 5B for controlling the flow of liquid refrigerant to the evaporating 20 means 44 located in theenciosure 42. The liquid refrigerant evaporates under reduced pressure in the evaporator means 44 and cools the air within and flowing through the enclosure 44 while at the same time the refrigerant iiquefying means 40 located within the enclosure 38 heats the airwithin and flowing through the enclosure 38.

The air from each of the enclosures 38 and 62 is drawn by a centrifugal fan 60 through a Y- shaped duct means 62 provided with a mixing damper 64 for mixing the air drawn through the respective enclosures 38 and 42 in proper proportions so as to supply air to the bed enclosure 26 at the proper temperature. This mixing damper 64 is connected by a rod 66 to a bellows 68 connected to a thermostatic bulb 10 located within the duct 28 which conducts the air from the blower 60 to the bed enclosure 26. The expansion and contraction of the bellows 68 and the movement of the mixing damper 64 is regulated by a tension spring 12 which is adjusted by an adjusting screw 54 which may be manipulated to adjust or vary the temperature of the air supplied to the bed enclosure 26.

It is, of course, obvious that when the mixing damper 64 is in either of its two extreme positions, no air will be drawn by the .fan 60 over the surfaces of the air tempering means located in one of the chambers or the enclosure 38 containing the iiquefying means or the enclosure 42 containing the evaporating means. Therefore, I provide separate centrifugal fans, one of which designated by the reference character 16 is provided for drawing air through the enclosure 42,

while the other II, is provided for drawing air through the enclosure II. In order to control these fans It and I8, I have provided a peculiar switch arrangement which includes a leaf spring ll carried by an arm projecting from the bellows I and adapted to make contact when the mixing damper Cl is in either of its extreme positions with the contacts 2 and I4 which are provided with horseshoe magnets 88 and It to provide a certain amount of snap action and to snuff out any arcing of the contacts. The leaf spring II is preferably of a magnetic material or is provided with an armature so that it will be attracted by the horseshoe magnets.

In operation, under normal conditions the mixing damper 64 will assume some intermediate position according to the temperature passing the thermostat bulb in. The air will constantly be drawn from the outside through the window duct 32 to the enclosures l2 and 3. where the air will be cooled and heated respectively and then drawn through the Y-shaped duct member 62 past the mixing valve 64 by a centrifugal fan which will then discharge the air into the duct means 28 which then conducts the air to the bed enclosure 26 for maintaining the air within the enclosure at a comfortable temperature for sleeping.

when the outside air is very warm the mixing damper 64 will be moved by the thermostat II and the expansion of the bellows Bl to its extreme downward position shown in dotted lines. This will prevent the blower 60 from circulating any air through the enclosure 88 to cool the liquefying apparatus and will cause all the air to be drawn from the outside over the surfaces of the evaporating means and discharged through the duct means 2| to the bed enclosure. The leaf spring 80 will be moved at the same time downwardly into contact with the contact 84 and will be provided with sort of a snap action by the horseshoe magnet 88. The engagement of the leaf spring 80 with the contact 8| will cause the electric blower 18 to be energized and to draw air nver the surfaces of the refrigerant liquefying means. The air drawn into the enclosure :0 will be the outside air which, of course, is, under ordinary sleeping conditions, cooler than the'air within the room. This will enable the apparatus to operate more efllciently.

Likewise, when the external air is very cool the mixing damper 84 will be moved by the thermostat 10 and the bellows 68 to its extreme upward position shown in full lines in the drawing which will prevent the blower ill from drawing air from the enclosure 42 and require it to draw all its air through the window duct and the enclosure ll containing the refrigerant liquefying means for heating the air and discharging this heated air through the duct 28 into the bed enclosure 2L Whenthe mixing damper 6| is in this position. the leaf spring 80 will move into contact with the contact 82 under the control of the horseshoe magnet 86 and energize the electric blower ll to circulate the air over the surfaces of the evaporating means 44.

In this way full advantage is taken of the cool outside air and a simplified means is provided for supplying both cool and warm air to the bed enclosure. The room is also ventilated by such a system.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form,

it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A conditioning system for a. fluid to be conditioned including tempering means for heating the fluid, tempering means for cooling the fluid, means for circulating the fluid in heat exchange relation with the cooling means and the heating means, thermostatic means for controlling the mixing of the cooled and heated fluid. and means for independently circulating fluid in heat exchange relation with one of said tempering means.

2. A conditioning system for a fluid to be conditioned including means for heating the fluid, means for cooling the fluid, means for circulating the fluid in heat exchange relation with the cooling means and the heating means, thermostatic means for controlling the mixing of the cooled and heated fluid, and means for independently circulating fluid in heat exchange relation with said heating means.

3. A conditioning system for a fluid to be con ditioned including means for heating the fluid, means for cooling the fluid, means for circulating the fluid in heat exchange relation with the cooling means and the heating means, thermostatic means for controlling the mixing of the cooled and heated fluid, and means for independently circulating fluid in heat exchange relation with said cooling means.

4. A conditioning system for a fluid to be conditioned including means for heating the fluid, means for cooling the fluid, means for circulating the fluid in heat exchange relation with the cooling means and the heating means, thermostatic means for controlling the mixing of the cooled and heated fluid, and means responsive to the shutting oil of the cooled fluid by the thermostatic means for independently circulating fluid in heat exchange relation with the cooling means.

5. A conditioning system for a fluid to be conditioned including means for heating the fluid, means for cooling the fluid, means for circulating the fluid in heat exchange relation with the cooling means and the heating means, thermostatic means for controlling the mixing of the cooled and heated fluid, and means responsive to the shutting ad of the heated fluid by the thermostatic means for independently circulating fluid in heat exchange relation with the heating means.

6. A conditioning system for supplying a conditioned gaseous fluid including means for heating the gaseous fluid, means for cooling the gaseous fluid, a fan means for drawing heated and cooled gaseous fluid from the heating and cooling means, and a mixing device between said fan means and said heating and cooling means for mixing the heated and cooled gaseous fluid, and thermostatic means responsive to the temperature of the gaseous fluid discharged by said fan means for controlling said mixing means.

''I. A conditioning system for a gaseous fluid to be conditioned including means for heating the gaseous fluid, means for cooling the gaseous fluid, means for circulating the gaseous fluid in heat exchange relation with the cooling means and the heating means, thermostatic means for controlling the mixing of the cooled and heated gaseous fluid, and means for independently circulating gaseous fluid in heat exchange relation with said cooling means.

HARRY B. HULL. 

